I bought a Lynn lumber mill kit only saw mill head the equipment was. excellent investment I built the mill from plans prvitied easy to follow did change a few things but a very strong saw mill first cut was flawless. Chris from Lynn lumber was always there to answer. questions no matter small treated me like i was his only customer best mill on the market I went and operated several. every co. did not care if even talk to I know investing 8000 plus is no small thing money could be sent other places. thank you Lynn lumber very very HAPPY. THANK YOU
I want to let people know that I originally bought one of Gary Boyd's very first mills 34 years ago. Gary was the founder of Linn Lumber Mills. I have been building Handcrafted log homes for over 48 years and I needed a mill that would cut very long material. While most of the logwork is done using chainsaws and hand tools, I needed to be able to cut logs in half and to cut flats on rafters and plate logs. The original mills used a vertical shaft motor to power a long chainsaw bar and chain. It is a perfect machine for what I use it for in logwork because I wanted the 3/8" saw kerf so I could put a chainsaw into the kerfs to complete my cuts. A second advantage of the chainsaw bar and chain is that I can cut in either direction which you cannot do with a bandsaw. I built two additional 20' mill extensions and can now cut logs and timbers up to 57' This mill has been one of the best equipment investments I ever made for my business because it does what no other mill on the market does. The only downside is that this is not a fast production mill. And I knew that the setup time would be quite slow. After about 20 year I decided I needed to speed things up a bit and gave Gary a call again. Gary built me one of his first 1900 bandsaw heads to fit on my existing mill frame. I now have the best of both worlds. The bandsaw is much faster and produces a slightly better cut on the material. Mine is powered with a 21 hp Honda horizontal shaft V-twin. It definitely speeds things up, yet it is still relatively slow to set up logs. The pro of it is that I needed to cut some long 2x8 RS Douglas-fir barge boards for the edge of a roof on a 1935 log house that we're restoring. I was able to cut the pieces I needed very precisely and they will never give the home owner a problem in the next 40-50 years. Gary always gave very good service over the years and I cannot recommend their work highly enough. I f I needed a mill of the type they specialize in, I would do it all over again. I'm now in the process of buying a production bandsaw mill and edger. If Linn Lumber Mills mad a saw large enough I would surely give it a very close look. I was planning on a Wood-Mizer LT50 Wide mill. I was talking to my younger brother about them and he went ahead and bought the same mill that I was planning on buying from W-M. After looking at them more and more, I realized that I needed a longer mill than what W-M produces and I was also feeling like the W-M EG200 edger was a bit on the light side of what I wanted. I happened across Cook's Saw and Manufacturing down in Alabama. I am absolutely impressed with their saws and the company. I'll be buying their AC36 sawmill and their large edger. It looks like the big brother to the mills that Linn Lumber Mills would produce if they were going to go large. Again, you will not go wrong with a Linn Lumber Mill if it is in the size range that you want and need. I know you'll get at least 34 years of use out of it with very little maintenance! P.S. If Gary Boyd stops by one of these days, tell him that Mark Fritch said to say, "Hello!"
My mill has held up fairly well and I would recommend the model 1900 with the power feed and up and down adjustment option but if you go that route I also would suggest to you to ask them to keep the drive chain that they supply and give you credit for it since it will rust tight within the first 2 winters of outdoor storage regardless if you keep it covered or not. Go online and order 20 feet of #40 Stainless Steel roller chain and you will not have any issues with your drive chain, even though it will set you back a good $150. it is well worth doing.
I have some important information for anybody that is thinking about buying this mill. I purchased the model 1900 with all of the options and the best engine available, the 25 HP Kohler. Over all it is a good machine and will produce very high quality lumber and slabs but there are some issues that I believe you should know about. The first problem that I encountered was that my wood was being stained by the black powder coating which did not appear to be baked on very well, it always was marking my high quaility redwood slabs and high quality lumber. The finish is plenty good enough not to need planing but with this black staining I was forced to mill over sized and pay to have my lumber planed. Eventually I purchased four feet of Stainless Steel square tubing for the log holders which I cut into four pieces but I still had the problem of the log bed staining and marking the wood black so I was forced to sand of the powder coating which leaves the steel bare and able to rust. Another problem I noticed was that the band wheels are not balanced well enough and this causes a galloping of the entire machine which is not good for it but seemed to not affect the quality of the wood. Also the main bearings on the band wheels are inadequate in size and heat up during use, these will not last long and are the main component taking all of the force of the tension from the saw band. The power feed and power adjust seems to so far be working ok but it sometimes will not work at all during moist cold weather and this renders the mill unusable. For $10,000 they could have worked some of these problems out but apparently did not. One more thing the fact that the band wheels are wrapped with rubber drive belts also stains the wood and lumber black from specks od actual rubber coming off during sawing which gets imbedded right into your nice clean wood, this is a problem that I am very unhappy with and the only thing that you can do is not use any water for lubricant and brush, sweep off the sawdust immediately off of every board that you cut and frankly this has become a real pain in the ass. If I had a choice I would of added a few thousand dollars more and purchased a cooks lumber mill which has worked most of these issues away. One more thing is that it's claim of being able to mill 36" logs is a bit far fetched due to the tight fit of the log on the bed, the log must be perfectly centered to even make a couple of cuts otherwise the drive side of the bands will hit the edge of the log. I would not recommend this mill to anybody wanting to mill anything other than construction grade rough lumber. If you are going to mill quality hardwood slabs or redwood for furniture or special uses this is not the mill for you.
Marti, I've been using a chemical that my family uses in our large mill to remove the black staining that you're talking about. You can look me up online by entering Mark Fritch Log Homes. Call or send me an email with your emailing address and mailing address. I'll send you some photos and a sample of the product that removes the stain. It will completely eliminate the iron oxide staining. It is also good for the tiny black spots that occur from the tiny flakes of metal that come off the blades during cutting.
Also let me mention that the placement of the hydraulic pump/plunger for blade adjustment is placed in the worst possible location so when you need to tighten it while the mill is cutting you must step right near the path of the spinning blade, one would think that it could of been placed pointing back out of the way in a much safer location.
I've had my 1900 bandsaw mill for about 15 years and I've never had a problem with the pump's location. You should not have a worry about a breaking saw blade if you have your guards in place.
Hi Robert - Did you ever end up buying a mill from them. I ended up buying the build-it yourself super saw frame from these guys and they are great. I am in Hamden CT. I am about 50% of the way through the build now.
It is something that a woman can handle because I believe women are no different than men other than maybe physical strength but you should be careful to choose a mill suited for what kind of end result quality your looking for in your finish pruduct as far as finish, looks if not going to be planed and so on. For the price of the basic model I believe it is a good deal but read my other post to learn some facts about these mills.
May Yang, you should have no problem with the mill. The logs will be heavy, but if you're milling you will need something like a tractor with a front end loader on it to move the logs. The lumber is whatever the lumber is and you will possibly need help moving some things that you may cut, but you could do that with the tractor anyway.
Hi Linn Lumber, thanks for the informative video! I have a CZcams question. Did it used to be prohibited to put your website address in the video description? I'm wondering if there is a special purpose or cause to not having it there? I would assume it would be a benefit to having handy. I know I would have just used it! I'm wondering if you can educate me on this. Did it used to be banned, having your address in the description? Thank you very much... now onto your website...
So it is now 2017, I bought my 1900 mill about 3 years ago or so and at first Linn Lumber were pretty good at replying and offering help as to any problems that I was having but now they do not even reply to my email at all, for a mill that I spent right about $10,000. for I was expecting a bit better customer service so in light of their failure to stand behind their product I will now post all of the problems that I had and still have with my mill: 1st off the mill is not designed to be waterproof at all the electronic control box that comes with the power feed options is not watertight and will cause you problems even when it is not raining because it has no seal, no o-ring and is not weather resistant. Along with that you will get a chinese made low quality drive chain that will rust up tighter than a drum within the first two years, sooner if you happen to live by the ocean and as I found out the acme screws that they supply for the power up and down are not too far behind as far as rusting to the point of non operation. This along with a cheap steel fuel tank that has a cap with a breather hole right in the middle of the top is sure to flow water into the fuel tank and cause more rust, fuel tank has no shut off valve or easily inspectable filter. The tracks are not far behind since they flex like you would not believe and need to be thicker angle iron, I suspect that they too are made from chinese material that is quite flimsy for the size that they are. Last but not least is the fact that the band drive wheels are made for driving belts on machinery, not driving steel band blades on a mill and they are not only out of round but also far from being balanced and this causes the entire mill to gallop and make ridges in the wood that you are milling, not a good design to say the least and when I brought this problem to their attention early on I was told that it was not the problem, "just tighten the band belt up more", sorry but that does not cut it guy's. There is much room for improvement in this mills design starting with the serious problems concerning water proofing and using stainless steel drive chain and acme screws so at least these two important functions will not be compromised by eventual rust like my mill experienced. Over all I would stay away from this mill for the money that they are asking for the reasons mentioned in this post, it so far has cost me well over $500. to try to bring my mill up to the point of being weather proof. I also strongly feel that the main bearings that the band wheels ride on are undersized and inadequate for long term use so if you are going to fork over $10,000. + on a mill you might want to consider doing some really good research and know the pro's and cons of any and all mills that you look at, I did not and now I am paying for my mistake. Cook lumber mills seems to be a for sure step up from this lemon.
Well, now you know what you need. I have one of LLM's very first mills and also one of their very first 1900's. I've not had the problems that you have had. I do have a cover where I can back them under cover at the end of the day. I keep the Acme's lubed and, while not perfectly rust free, they are not in bad shape after ~15 years. If you don't like their mill, I suggest that you look into Cook's Saw and Manufacturing to see what they produce. I'm buying one of their AC36 Sawmills and an edger soon and they are build very well.
I like the well thought out design of these mills, simple but very good.
I bought a Lynn lumber mill kit only saw mill head the equipment was. excellent investment I built the mill from plans prvitied easy to follow did change a few things but a very strong saw mill first cut was flawless. Chris from Lynn lumber was always there to answer. questions no matter small treated me like i was his only customer best mill on the market I went and operated several. every co. did not care if even talk to I know investing 8000 plus is no small thing money could be sent other places. thank you Lynn lumber very very HAPPY. THANK YOU
I want to let people know that I originally bought one of Gary Boyd's very first mills 34 years ago. Gary was the founder of Linn Lumber Mills. I have been building Handcrafted log homes for over 48 years and I needed a mill that would cut very long material. While most of the logwork is done using chainsaws and hand tools, I needed to be able to cut logs in half and to cut flats on rafters and plate logs. The original mills used a vertical shaft motor to power a long chainsaw bar and chain. It is a perfect machine for what I use it for in logwork because I wanted the 3/8" saw kerf so I could put a chainsaw into the kerfs to complete my cuts. A second advantage of the chainsaw bar and chain is that I can cut in either direction which you cannot do with a bandsaw. I built two additional 20' mill extensions and can now cut logs and timbers up to 57' This mill has been one of the best equipment investments I ever made for my business because it does what no other mill on the market does. The only downside is that this is not a fast production mill. And I knew that the setup time would be quite slow.
After about 20 year I decided I needed to speed things up a bit and gave Gary a call again. Gary built me one of his first 1900 bandsaw heads to fit on my existing mill frame. I now have the best of both worlds. The bandsaw is much faster and produces a slightly better cut on the material. Mine is powered with a 21 hp Honda horizontal shaft V-twin. It definitely speeds things up, yet it is still relatively slow to set up logs. The pro of it is that I needed to cut some long 2x8 RS Douglas-fir barge boards for the edge of a roof on a 1935 log house that we're restoring. I was able to cut the pieces I needed very precisely and they will never give the home owner a problem in the next 40-50 years.
Gary always gave very good service over the years and I cannot recommend their work highly enough. I f I needed a mill of the type they specialize in, I would do it all over again. I'm now in the process of buying a production bandsaw mill and edger. If Linn Lumber Mills mad a saw large enough I would surely give it a very close look. I was planning on a Wood-Mizer LT50 Wide mill. I was talking to my younger brother about them and he went ahead and bought the same mill that I was planning on buying from W-M. After looking at them more and more, I realized that I needed a longer mill than what W-M produces and I was also feeling like the W-M EG200 edger was a bit on the light side of what I wanted. I happened across Cook's Saw and Manufacturing down in Alabama. I am absolutely impressed with their saws and the company. I'll be buying their AC36 sawmill and their large edger. It looks like the big brother to the mills that Linn Lumber Mills would produce if they were going to go large.
Again, you will not go wrong with a Linn Lumber Mill if it is in the size range that you want and need. I know you'll get at least 34 years of use out of it with very little maintenance! P.S. If Gary Boyd stops by one of these days, tell him that Mark Fritch said to say, "Hello!"
My mill has held up fairly well and I would recommend the model 1900 with the power feed and up and down adjustment option but if you go that route I also would suggest to you to ask them to keep the drive chain that they supply and give you credit for it since it will rust tight within the first 2 winters of outdoor storage regardless if you keep it covered or not. Go online and order 20 feet of #40 Stainless Steel roller chain and you will not have any issues with your drive chain, even though it will set you back a good $150. it is well worth doing.
I never understand why people use steel and not stainless on industrial units. But if it rusts through winter apply grease.
I have some important information for anybody that is thinking about buying this mill. I purchased the model 1900 with all of the options and the best engine available, the 25 HP Kohler. Over all it is a good machine and will produce very high quality lumber and slabs but there are some issues that I believe you should know about. The first problem that I encountered was that my wood was being stained by the black powder coating which did not appear to be baked on very well, it always was marking my high quaility redwood slabs and high quality lumber. The finish is plenty good enough not to need planing but with this black staining I was forced to mill over sized and pay to have my lumber planed. Eventually I purchased four feet of Stainless Steel square tubing for the log holders which I cut into four pieces but I still had the problem of the log bed staining and marking the wood black so I was forced to sand of the powder coating which leaves the steel bare and able to rust. Another problem I noticed was that the band wheels are not balanced well enough and this causes a galloping of the entire machine which is not good for it but seemed to not affect the quality of the wood. Also the main bearings on the band wheels are inadequate in size and heat up during use, these will not last long and are the main component taking all of the force of the tension from the saw band. The power feed and power adjust seems to so far be working ok but it sometimes will not work at all during moist cold weather and this renders the mill unusable. For $10,000 they could have worked some of these problems out but apparently did not. One more thing the fact that the band wheels are wrapped with rubber drive belts also stains the wood and lumber black from specks od actual rubber coming off during sawing which gets imbedded right into your nice clean wood, this is a problem that I am very unhappy with and the only thing that you can do is not use any water for lubricant and brush, sweep off the sawdust immediately off of every board that you cut and frankly this has become a real pain in the ass. If I had a choice I would of added a few thousand dollars more and purchased a cooks lumber mill which has worked most of these issues away. One more thing is that it's claim of being able to mill 36" logs is a bit far fetched due to the tight fit of the log on the bed, the log must be perfectly centered to even make a couple of cuts otherwise the drive side of the bands will hit the edge of the log. I would not recommend this mill to anybody wanting to mill anything other than construction grade rough lumber. If you are going to mill quality hardwood slabs or redwood for furniture or special uses this is not the mill for you.
It really sounds like you need a Woodmizer and all of their problems
Marti, I've been using a chemical that my family uses in our large mill to remove the black staining that you're talking about. You can look me up online by entering Mark Fritch Log Homes. Call or send me an email with your emailing address and mailing address. I'll send you some photos and a sample of the product that removes the stain. It will completely eliminate the iron oxide staining. It is also good for the tiny black spots that occur from the tiny flakes of metal that come off the blades during cutting.
Impressive!
amazing
good job
Is there benefits of using a single grove carriage wheel over the v grove type that rides angle that is turned v side up. Thanks David T.
This is the real deal.
Also let me mention that the placement of the hydraulic pump/plunger for blade adjustment is placed in the worst possible location so when you need to tighten it while the mill is cutting you must step right near the path of the spinning blade, one would think that it could of been placed pointing back out of the way in a much safer location.
I've had my 1900 bandsaw mill for about 15 years and I've never had a problem with the pump's location. You should not have a worry about a breaking saw blade if you have your guards in place.
How much do they cost?
Hi Robert - Did you ever end up buying a mill from them. I ended up buying the build-it yourself super saw frame from these guys and they are great. I am in Hamden CT. I am about 50% of the way through the build now.
How did your mill turn out?
I like the well thought and design of this mills,how much it cost to buy one?will that be some thing that women can handle?
It is something that a woman can handle because I believe women are no different than men other than maybe physical strength but you should be careful to choose a mill suited for what kind of end result quality your looking for in your finish pruduct as far as finish, looks if not going to be planed and so on. For the price of the basic model I believe it is a good deal but read my other post to learn some facts about these mills.
May Yang, you should have no problem with the mill. The logs will be heavy, but if you're milling you will need something like a tractor with a front end loader on it to move the logs. The lumber is whatever the lumber is and you will possibly need help moving some things that you may cut, but you could do that with the tractor anyway.
Hi Linn Lumber, thanks for the informative video! I have a CZcams question. Did it used to be prohibited to put your website address in the video description? I'm wondering if there is a special purpose or cause to not having it there? I would assume it would be a benefit to having handy. I know I would have just used it! I'm wondering if you can educate me on this. Did it used to be banned, having your address in the description? Thank you very much... now onto your website...
What about Norwood, Timberking and Windmizer ?
Nice idea Linn Lumber. Sure there is a market for this nice product.
Needs a lot of expensive upgrading to make it a decent mill, just read all of the problems that I have.
As it is the size of the saw blade
hey jus wanna kno what country is linn lumber at
Near Lebanon, Oregon, US
Can someone direct me to video of one in use by a customer? The 1900
Good mill
So it is now 2017, I bought my 1900 mill about 3 years ago or so and at first Linn Lumber were pretty good at replying and offering help as to any problems that I was having but now they do not even reply to my email at all, for a mill that I spent right about $10,000. for I was expecting a bit better customer service so in light of their failure to stand behind their product I will now post all of the problems that I had and still have with my mill: 1st off the mill is not designed to be waterproof at all the electronic control box that comes with the power feed options is not watertight and will cause you problems even when it is not raining because it has no seal, no o-ring and is not weather resistant. Along with that you will get a chinese made low quality drive chain that will rust up tighter than a drum within the first two years, sooner if you happen to live by the ocean and as I found out the acme screws that they supply for the power up and down are not too far behind as far as rusting to the point of non operation. This along with a cheap steel fuel tank that has a cap with a breather hole right in the middle of the top is sure to flow water into the fuel tank and cause more rust, fuel tank has no shut off valve or easily inspectable filter. The tracks are not far behind since they flex like you would not believe and need to be thicker angle iron, I suspect that they too are made from chinese material that is quite flimsy for the size that they are. Last but not least is the fact that the band drive wheels are made for driving belts on machinery, not driving steel band blades on a mill and they are not only out of round but also far from being balanced and this causes the entire mill to gallop and make ridges in the wood that you are milling, not a good design to say the least and when I brought this problem to their attention early on I was told that it was not the problem, "just tighten the band belt up more", sorry but that does not cut it guy's. There is much room for improvement in this mills design starting with the serious problems concerning water proofing and using stainless steel drive chain and acme screws so at least these two important functions will not be compromised by eventual rust like my mill experienced. Over all I would stay away from this mill for the money that they are asking for the reasons mentioned in this post, it so far has cost me well over $500. to try to bring my mill up to the point of being weather proof. I also strongly feel that the main bearings that the band wheels ride on are undersized and inadequate for long term use so if you are going to fork over $10,000. + on a mill you might want to consider doing some really good research and know the pro's and cons of any and all mills that you look at, I did not and now I am paying for my mistake. Cook lumber mills seems to be a for sure step up from this lemon.
Well, now you know what you need. I have one of LLM's very first mills and also one of their very first 1900's. I've not had the problems that you have had. I do have a cover where I can back them under cover at the end of the day. I keep the Acme's lubed and, while not perfectly rust free, they are not in bad shape after ~15 years. If you don't like their mill, I suggest that you look into Cook's Saw and Manufacturing to see what they produce. I'm buying one of their AC36 Sawmills and an edger soon and they are build very well.
very interested in this machine. please contact me back as soon as you can!!! thank you!
well, i go tthe schematics for this mill to build and the drawings are horrible!
Great designs... horrid music..